Apple's Cash-Sharing

And some advice on viewing payouts, buybacks.

The financial headlines blared last week: Apple (ticker: AAPL) is finally giving its investors a slice of its roughly $98 billion cash pie.

The tech giant's $2.65-a-share quarterly common dividend, its first since a 12-cent disbursement in December 1995, is worth $9.88 billion annually to stockholders. Yet at the issue's lofty Nasdaq price above $600 a share, Apple yields just 1.8%; Microsoft (MSFT) yields 2.5% and Cisco Systems...